Eve
by eloriane
Summary: What if Frankenstein had brought the female monster to life?


_ This is just one of many ways that Frankenstein's female monster may have responded to her upbringing; as an individual, she could have brought about any number of endings for herself, though I suspect most of them would not have been happy._

_My story begins on page 171 of the original text, and then diverges._

_--- _

I trembled, and my heart failed within me, when, on looking up, I saw, by the light of the moon, the daemon at the casement. A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed upon me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me. Yes, he had followed me in my travels; he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths; and he now came to mark my progress, and claim the fulfillment of my promise.

As I looked on him his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, began to tear to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me try to destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, burst in.

Insensible of the bits of glass still sticking in his hide, he strode towards me and lifted me up before I could think to flee. He held me in the air with one monstrous hand, away from himself, so that I could do nothing but flail as he gently nudged the near-complete form back into an appearance of wholeness. Unable to actually repair the damage, he turned back to me, his fury evident.

"Do you now dare to break our promise? Think well; you must tread lightly with me. My request was reasonable, and I made it with reason; you cannot deny that. Yet you now destroy your work! Must I instead demand that you comply?"

He still held me, the length of his arm so great that I could never hope to reach him; he could kill me in an instant. And so long as I refused to carry through with this second abomination, my death was assured; speaking my mind was as safe as staying silent. I glared at him, and spoke.

"Your promise cannot be kept. You say that you and your companion will exile yourselves, but she will be a new creature, and what if she does not wish to remain secluded? She may not feel bound by a promise made before her own creation, and what if she does not listen to you? Indeed, what if she does not even like you? Just because she will be hideous herself, that is no reason to assume she won't be disgusted by your hideousness. She may hate you, run from you, and wreak her own destruction upon mankind—and then I will have released two monsters upon the world. You cannot promise this will not happen. We are both ignorant of her true nature, just as I was ignorant of yours!"

"I am as I was raised to be. If I am a monster, it is because I had a monstrous upbringing!" He shook me, and I feared for my life, but then his horrible visage calmed, and he set me down in the corner; he still obstructed my path to the ruined creation, presumably lest I do further damage, but sat comfortably.

"I shall do better," he said at last. "I can raise her with care, teach her to be gentle, and she shall not be a monster. Young minds are molded by what they see first. With no one to look to but me, she will surely see as I do; do not all children learn so from those around them? With no other life to compare ours to, she will think it happy; with no other beings to compare us to, she will think us beautiful. I can teach her so that no thought of harm could enter her mind. I shall warn her of humans as you might warn your companions of me, and she will keep herself away from humans. She will benefit from the knowledge of my mistakes, and she will be better than me."

I was wary, but I remembered again his original impassioned plea, and his response seemed reasonable; certainly I knew many people whose upbringing determined their lives, and indeed it seemed to be the rule. Though I was yet uncomfortable, I could not argue a response. I recalled my greatest fear, that through their joining they would produce a race of monsters to plague the earth, and decided upon a compromise by which I could be rid of this terror forever.

"I shall create for you a companion, and the two of you shall leave me forever, but she shall not be your mate; she will not bear you children. This is the condition: you will have a friend to join you in solitude, but my error will end with your own lives."

He looked for a moment as if he would not agree, but then he moved aside and gestured me towards my work. Luckily, the damage I had done earlier was minimal, since he entered to stop me; I set about repairing it. He sat down, apparently intending to watch; I could not tell him to go. I worked under his harsh glare for several nights before it was ready. He instructed me to hide when the moment came, so that he would be the first and only face she saw.

Hiding in the shadows, I watched as her eyes opened, dim yellow, just as with my first creation; and I felt again that revulsion, doubly strong, but could not flee lest I reveal myself; I sank deeper into my hiding place. She moved, a hideous patchwork of flesh, far uglier because of her sex, and the first monster helped her to her feet. He had made a dress of sorts, as he watched me form her, and he clothed her now, with his large, clumsy fingers; at last, he lifted her into his arms—a terrible sight! Two mountains of flesh, a colossus of a man carrying a colossus of a woman, as easily as a babe!—and carried her from the room. The wind slammed the door firmly shut behind them.

I collapsed onto the floor, overwhelmed with relief. At last, I was free!

---

The monster returned, distraught.

I had passed several months happily, enjoying England with my dear Clerval, writing joyfully to my Elizabeth, and at last regaining the health and peace of mind that had so long eluded me. I believed myself free, but it was a foolish hope; the monster did return.

It was early morning, and the beach was covered with a dense fog. I wandered alone, breathing deeply of the sea air, even humming a bit to myself; the monster exploded from the fog and at once seemed to strike the months of happiness from my life.

"She has died," he said. "I did my best to teach her, but I couldn't convince her; I told her of the people in the house, but they were just a story to her, and she did not feel for them the same way; I showed her my books, but they were not her only companions, and she did not understand them the same way. She read and reread _Paradise Lost_, but she sympathized with Satan, and rejected Eve! I could not make her agree with me.

"I thought I could keep her in check because I controlled her information of the outside world—when it seemed clear she would not avoid humans of her own will, I told her that they would bring about her death. Perhaps I should not have exaggerated the physical danger; she avoided humans with me as instructed for a while, but when we came upon a child by accident, she was amazed to hear me label it a human. She had expected a powerful, beautiful being, but it was small and scared. The poor thing was lost, and as I attempted to help, she turned on me with scorn; humans were not worthy of our consideration, she said. She told me I was a fool for wishing to be human; she preferred our monstrous forms. She killed the child easily, and laughed at me for being afraid of humans, and left."

The monster broke off, and there was a moment of silence as I struggled to find words. I was overwhelmed with rage and fear. Oh, how foolish I had been, to feel safe with monsters on the loose! She had perhaps been committing murders even as I had slept soundly each night, believing myself guiltless at last. He had failed me!

"You swore you would be harmless—you swore you would keep her under control—" I began my accusation; but he cut me off, speaking again as if he had just remembered I was present.

"I couldn't control how she thought! I had hoped to shape her mind to match my own, but she would not be bent; and no amount of physical prowess could control her if her mind was free. Do not look at me like that; I did not enjoy seeing the damage she wrought. It is probable that I grieve even more than you at the thought of her soul turning to destruction. I had to watch, following, desperate but ineffective, as she killed men, women, and children for their food and clothes and silly trinkets; I could do nothing to convince her it was wrong. If only she had listened to me, she could have been safe, but they killed her, and there was nothing I could do. I loved her, but she turned away from me, and it meant her death.

"And now I am left alone once more. There is no hope for me to ever know happiness. My future is desolate. You are my creator, and yet you have failed me in this and every regard. But still you are happy! I have seen you, these past days, laughing with your companions and writing to your family—all is well in your world! You tremble now, but it is not with pity, I know that; it is with selfish fear. And at last, it is justified. I cannot live peacefully apart—it is impossible for me now, alone and unloved as I am; I am filled with only harshness, and I shall find my revenge for my unhappiness. You shall understand the pain that I feel."

He moved towards me. Thinking that surely he would kill me at once, I armed myself as best I could with the contents of my desk, but to my surprise, though he grabbed me up and took my weapon, he did not harm me.

"I will be with you on your wedding night," he declared, his huge yellow eyes gleaming in the dim candlelight, and then he dropped me and fled.


End file.
